Her Guardian Angel
by RinaHatakeda
Summary: As a child Bella learned that trust and love are for fairytales and a luxury in reality. The luxury she never had. Defiant and tough she is facing the world, until one night a soft knock on her window changes everything. AN: no vampires or werewolves.
1. A Family Portrait

**Starter**

Your thoughts get lost in the ocean  
>and your prides as strong as the sea<br>your heart is blocked by a rain cloud  
>only thunder and rain can be seen<p>

Do you ever think there's someone out  
>There looking over you<br>watching everything you do  
>Looking after you<p>

© Lee Ryan – Guardian Angel

**A Family Portrait **

Dishes rattled. Plates and mugs shattered on the white kitchen tiles. A few drops of blood fell down. A young woman licked her bloody finger. A short silence followed, echoing through the entire house. But even in this silence you could hear the last sentences of anger vibrating in the air. The next moment the woman got her hands on a mug and threw it at the man in front of her.

Porcelain wasn't the only thing flying through the room. Harsh words came through two hoarse throats. They were meant to hit each other one, to hurt if possible. Hooker and fuckwit were almost friendly compared to other profanities the six-year-old girl had to listen to from the landing. She sat still on the tiled stairs. Her hands - first shaking around the bars of the railing - were now pressed to her ears. Silence. Sweet, soft, wonderful silence.

Long ago little Isabella gave up on walking to her parents to try and beg them to be happy again. She knew by now that it wouldn't help. Her tears wouldn't bring peace to the family. Just like all her prayers to god had been just a waste of time.

It was a scene that repeated itself over and over again for many years. But the girl grew up and learned to handle it differently. Isabella Marie didn't stay to sit at the landing when her parents started fighting in the middle of the night again. She didn't even pray anymore. She climbed out of the window, down the vine and vanished into the night. She dreamed of never coming back but in the end she always did.

The worst for her wasn't the fights anymore but the endless attempts of getting back together, until Renée finally decided on a divorce. Bella had always felt sick whenever her parents told each other tales of undying love. As a little girl she wished for those moments, as a teenager she finally understood that it would lead to nothing but another fight. And new pain. She would just shake her head and leave the house more often nowadays. She was fifteen when the divorce became inevitable and the house grew quiet in a completely new way. There were still fights but mostly on the phone and Bella knew how to get around those. She either hung up whenever she saw her Dad's number on the display and wouldn't tell her mother he called at all - or she would leave the house and let her mother fight with him alone.

When the divorce finally became real everything calmed down. There was a fight at her sixteenth birthday party, but Bella wasn't even there when her parents started to yell at each other.

Sometimes she went away for days. Mostly on those days when her parents met with their lawyers to talk about the house they used to live in as a family or Isabella herself. She didn't care about either topic. She didn't want to choose whether to live with her Mum or her Dad. It didn't really matter to her anymore. She would just take whatever was easier. If she could have chosen, she would have left the crazy family behind any day. Never returning. But her thoughts always did. Sometimes she lay awake in bed and tried to figure out when it all went wrong. She never remembered a time without yelling and tears. It always got loud and mean. It hurt. Bella closed her eyes forcefully and shook her head. One day she had asked Renée. She didn't even know how she came up with such an unreasonable idea, as her mother would clearly say it was all her father's fault. It was a long list of things he could have done but never did, a list filled with unanswered desires and let down dreams. But when she asked how it all began, her mother's eyes filled with tears she never spilled that day. "I think it was when I lost the baby. He never got over that." Bella had simply nodded and left quickly. She could only faintly remember visiting her mother in a hospital. Those pictures sometimes found their way into her dreams. She had been three years old. She was supposed to be the older sister of a little boy who would have been called Alexander. But that never happened and she almost forgot about it. Her parents never tried again, or so Bella thought. She couldn't believe that there had been much room for tenderness between all the screaming and broken dishes.

Her father moved out when she had been fourteen. Not officially of course. He left most of his stuff and would come back every now and then, but he found his own flat and finally got some space for himself. She never understood why it had taken him so long. Bella wanted to move out ever since she was twelve. She had been happy when he was gone. Maybe that was why she remembered that night so well. He had come into her room silently and stood there next to her bed for what felt like hours. She had pretended to be asleep. He had kissed her forehead and whispered: "Don't worry Bells, everything will be fine soon." Then he was gone. With the car that belonged to his wife. Bella only stood up when she couldn't hear he engine anymore, walked into the bathroom, washed of the kiss and went back to bed.

By now she was almost seventeen. Only two more weeks were left until the party she had planned without anyone who was related to her in the slightest. She had a plan. She would run away two days before her birthday. Renée never called the police – she knew her daughter would come back at some point, just like she had done for years now. She'd come back home and never talk about where she had been or what she had done. Her mother had no saying in that anymore anyway.

Bella had no friends at her school. It was a christian-girls-only-school and everyone there knew how different she was. The private school was paid for by her grandmother who gave her the middle name Marie she just hated, which was why she only rebelled against it more.

Her life, the one she chose to have, mainly happened on the streets of Seattle. In the less attractive parts of the city she would meet up with those she considered her friends, mainly because they understood what she searched for and what she wanted in life, but also because no one there ever asked her annoying questions or tried to tell her what to do. She had been accepted into the scene when she had been twelve years old. Most people here had been to rehab at least once and Bella could count down on her fingers that it was only a matter of time until she would need that too. But she wasn't afraid of it. She was questioning and challenging life each day. She didn't believe in any sort of positive emotions of commitment. Love was a thing for books and TV shows. She never saw it in real life and doubted highly that it was even possible to exist to those extremes society talked about. Love at first sight.

She was the only girl in her group without a relationship so she had no boyfriend to stay with. Instead she would sleep on the couch of a punk girl called Alice. A while ago she would have stayed at Jake's almost every night, but he was dead. He had been found with a needle in his arm. She hadn't been sad, though they were close, just angry that he left her behind on earth.

That was her life. Bella knew it was pretty fucked up. But she didn't want it to change when she put the bottle of vodka to her lips. She just wanted to knock herself out and forget the world around her for a while. That was her philosophy and it worked pretty well right now so why change it?


	2. A Slightly Different Night

**A Slightly Different Night **

It was a night like any other. One of those nights in which Bella didn't disappear, but stayed at home. Even though she didn't like calling it that. Home. The small flat her mother got for them was a place to stay but not a home. It was something like a space for a few nights but nothing for eternity. Bella would count down the days until she could leave this place forever. Sometimes, when she had been at Jake's, she just imagined what it would be like to never go back to the flat. To stay with the boy instead.

She leaned her head against the cooling glass of her window. Jake. She didn't like to admit that she missed him in a way. She never had any deeper feelings for him but still...

She jumped up. No, that was just ridiculous. Even now she felt nothing but a hint of sympathy for him, 'cause he'd helped her one time or another. But then again he had left her alone. If she hadn't deemed it to be childish she would have given in to her anger that moment and thrown something around, or destroyed in another way. But that was the sort of behaviour she had seen from her parents in fights and she didn't want to be like that. Not ever. She shook her head.

"Bella?" The front door swung shut. The girl made a face. Her mother was back. From a night at work or maybe from her new boyfriend. She didn't know and she didn't want to anyway. She was hurt whenever she realized that her parents wouldn't find a way back together. Of course she would never admit that. But deep down inside she was still Isabella Marie. The little girl, who sait at the landing crying while wishing for nothing more than for her parents to stop fighting. This little girl inside of her always got out the beautiful memories and forced the bitter grown up Bella to look at them, to see how happy she used to be. She tried to make her see that life wasn't lost. But Bella never listened to her younger self. She was too controlled to let emotions like that get the best of her, or what she thought to be the best. "Bella? Are you still up? There is light in your room."

Yes, Mum, she thought annoyed, of course there is light how the hell am I supposed to see in the dark?

"Do you wanna eat with me?" It was a desperate try from Renée Dwyer to get through to her daughter. Isabella was trying to avoid her parents the best she could. She would be given infortmation if necessary but would leave quickly as soon as she had done her duty. The last thing she wanted right now was a long evening with her mother over some microwaved dinner. "No thanks Mum. I already ate something." She couldn't even take the loathing for her mother out of her voice. Not that she tried hard anymore. She didn't care that her mother sat down at the table and buried her head in her hands close to tearing up.

If only Bella would have looked at her once, she might have caught a glimpse of the ring that was on her mother's slim finger for almost a month now. Renée could have told her about Phil then and how happy she was having him. They could have left the flat on the sixth floor and move into a nice house at the city limits. But Bella didn't want to see those things and Renée had no idea how she should tell her daughter about it all. She would have loved bringing Phil. He was such a nice guy. Renée sighed and felt a tear slip down her cheek. One and then another until she was silently sobbing like she did so often, when she wondered what had happened to her little Bella.

It was almost two o'clock in the morning when Bella lay down on her bed. But as soon as she turned of the light she heard a knock. She sat up and looked around in the room confused. She must have imagined it, she told herself. There was nothing in her room that could be responsible for the knock. She leaned back and rested her head on the pillow. She closed her eyes and tried to ignore the constant knocking, she hummed a little tune hoping the imaginary knocking would fade out. But what, if it was no imagination? While she hummed she localized the knocking to come from her window. But how was that supposed to be even possible? She was living on 6th floor after all. Bella turned on the light again and looked towards her window. There was nothing to see. She stood up and opened it quietly. Still nothing. There was no scaffolding either so no one could have climbed up to knock. There was no way someone could throw pebbles up this high. Just my imagination like I said, she told herself and closed the window. Then she walked into the kitchen. She didn't tried to be quiet, 'cause she didn't care whether she would wake up her mother or not.

Renée wouldn't try to send her back to bed or talk about manners. Bella knew that because she tried it out several times. She took the milk out of the fridge and heat it up, then she put in some chocoa powder stirring it before dumping in a handful of marshmallows. "To you Alice!" she said smiling and took a sip. Her mind was already making plans for another nice day with the punk girl.

When she finished her hot chocolate she was silent for a change. She was sneaking through the hallway getting to the closet. Her fingers found the poket of her mother's coat and her purse. A triumphant grin was on her lips when she got out two notes. She pushed them into the poket of her own cardigan before she hurried to get back to her room.

She was just snuggling under the blanket, when she heard another soft knock, that made her sit up straight again. Unnerved by her own mind not shutting up with imaginary knocks, she turned the light back on and turned towards the window. And froze in spot. On the other side of her window there was a boy dangling upside down. That just couldn't be possible!


	3. Stranger of the Night

**Stranger of the Night**

Bella just couldn't believe what she was seeing out there. It simply wasn't possible that someone was dangling upside down in front of her window. She was living on 6th floor. Someone crawling out of the window and going down head first wouldn't reach down this far and there were no balconies on this side of the building. She went through a list of possible reasons for this - none fitting unless she was dreaming because the boy was there without scaffolding or anything else to hold him there.

She stood up carefully and walked to the window slowly. The boy turned around easily. She was staring at him in disbelief. There was no ladder, not that she knew of any ladder that could reach up this high except the one the fireman used. He definitely was no fireman. She couldn't see strings attached to him and figured the turning around would have been way too difficult with strings too. She hesitated for a moment, before she opened her window. The boy with the messy hair smiled at her and climbed in easily. She jumped back surprised and a bit scared too. Why did she open the window again?

There was no visible glow of thin strings anywhere but behind his back was something else. With another step into the room from his side and two backsteps from her she could make out the form of gigantic black wings. She was so perplex she didn't back away when he walked up to her but grabbed his shoulders and turned him around to look at his back. There was no paper construct holding the wings, they were coming right through the fabric of his shirt, she pushed her hand inside one of the holes and yanked at the wing, completely dazzled when she felt feathers under her fingertips. The feathers were coming right out of his skin. She backed away and rubbed her eyes, closed them and hoped he would be gone when she opened them again, but he wasn't. She tried to run for the door, but he grabbed her arm and held her back. She yanked herself free stumbling backwards until her legs hit the bed and she fell down on it. The strange boy was coming closer. She tried to scream but panic had taken over her voice and she couldn't make a sound.

"Hey calm down," he whispered softly. His voice was low and melodic and so pleasant. Bella couldn't help but calm down right away. She closed her eyes and waited for more words not able to do anything else. "You don't have to be scared. I promise I won't do you any harm." His hand reached out for her cheek and caressed her skin gently. Panic was right back at his touch. Bella pulled away quickly. "Who are you? What are you doing in my room?" Her voice was shaky from fear.

The stranger smiled bemused as he sat down at her bed. She was his first protégée and he had known she wouldn't be easy to handle. But her reaction to him was quite surprising none the less. "If I may introduce myself I am Edward." He smiled trying to be as polite and pleasant as possible. He noticed her gaze kept hanging at his lips and grinned knowing right away she thought his smile was cute. He actually blushed under the unspoken compliment just like it's originator did, before she shook her head to get rid of just that thought about his cute smile.

"Okay fine," she mumbled "but what the hell were you doing in front of my window?" She asked in a rough tone he knew she addressed her parents in whenever they tried to draw any borders or gave her any rules. He couldn't help smiling at that. She was such a sweet stubborn young girl with such a messy hair. Out of his thought he took one of her lose strands and pushed it back behind her ear gently. He knew she couldn't turn away from him. Her eyes were fixated on him all the time and her heartbeat was reacting to each of his movements. "Well how to put it the way you understand it? It's the hell my job to look after you." Her brows furrowed a moment before she seemed to decide to let it slip because she didn't understand it anyway. "My room is on freaking 6th floor." He laughed and nodded. „I noticed. But as you might have noticed that really wasn't a problem for me," he grinned and pointed at his back. "I just got these for the job."

Bella blinked confused. She tried to make up for it with sarcasm but her insecurity came through every word. "You're trying to tell me you flew up here right?" She started laughing. Edward looked at her irritated what the joke was that he obviously missed. "Yes, I did. How do you think I got up here otherwise?" She was staring at him and he was staring back still irritated. He didn't know much about life on earth and so he didn't know that guardian angels weren't common down here. He'd never been to earth before but he knew several angels who had - so of course he was confused as to why the concept of an angel was freaking her out like that. And he used to contact her through her dreams all the time. Weird enough he hadn't found a way to get through to her like that lately which was why he had gotten his pair of wings to go and visit her to deal with the problem directly. He didn't know about the rule of being invisible to humans and only affect their life without actually appearing right in front of them. He probably didn't know because Isabella was a special case and the latest turns of her life made it inevitable to send him to her. Someone up there meant for him to shock her quite a bit with his presence. She was so close to the edge acting up against the lines fate had designed for her that she needed a guide and she needed him right now.

Edward only had one reason of being – her. So keeping her alive was his top priority. If he didn't manage that he wouldn't only lose his chance on real white wings but also his very own existence. He had to show her a way to make it through other than the one she had chosen now. The plan was to show her how important emotions were. All of them. Mostly love of course but also pain and hate and everything else. He had to show her how those emotions were the thing humans existed for ever since they left the Garden of Eden and lost their chance on immortality. Because living life a certain amount of time wasn't the good thing about it. But filling however short or long this time was with various emotions was what humans truly exited for. Someone once told him that every life was painting a picture for only them to see and Isabella didn't even try to touch the tools in these last years. He had to show her the beauty and potential of her very own picture. And though she was stubborn and by god no easy case he would do his very best until this task was fulfilled.


End file.
